Lack of preparation gets me every time. You can't just get up and say, "I'm going to make a change" without the tools to actually help you accomplish your goals. Well, at least I can't. For me, the battle of the bulge struggle is real.
Healthy Food Choices:
The first thing I need to attack are my food choices. Two weeks ago, I went to the grocery store and purchased all of this healthy food. I pretty much stuck to the outer aisles, i.e the fresh fruits & veggies aisles. Although my refrigerator was stock piled with a lot of food, every time I opened the door, I didn't know what to cook and didn't have any quick go to snacks. I ended up making a delicious salad (my go to for the last 2 weeks have been a caprese salad, a kale salad with avocado in it, and a red cabbage salad with cilantro and Asian sesame dressing) and devouring the entire salad at once. Lessons learned: (1)Plan my meals prior to going to the grocery store, and (2) add protein to salads to make them more filling.
Exercise:
Here is my dilemma. I no longer have a gym membership. Chris' membership was paid in part by his last job, which took some of the financial burden off of us.We were members at Elmwood Downtown with access to the main gym on the weekends starting on Friday evening. It was convenient, because I could walk to the downtown location and get in a workout on my lunch break. In addition, the main gym had childcare which was very helpful on Saturday mornings. So now that a gym membership is no longer in the budget, I have to figure out other ways to make time for exercise. I am an early riser so in theory I could work out first thing in the morning at 5:30 a.m. In actuality however, getting out of my nice cozy bed that early is not very appealing. It would be easier if I had a partner that was getting up too, but Chris is definitely not a morning person. However, I am making it my mission to commit to waking up early 3 times a week and exercise for at least 30 minutes. This will require packing all of our lunches and picking out my work outfit the night before. Oy vey! When I get home from work, all I want to do is chill out and decompress. I also want to get back to jogging. I swear I lost the most weight when I adhered to a jogging routine. I always felt a sense of accomplishment after a jog. I could measure my success through my jogs. I saw myself go from walking most of the jog to jogging the entire 30 minutes. Now I have to start all over again. I'm considering working through lunch twice a week in order to get off a little early for a jog through downtown. Right now, I'm all about free exercise.
Support System:
As aforementioned, I like a work out buddy. I hate to admit this, but I am a misery loves company kind of gal, at least when it comes to exercise. I don't want to get up early in the morning and watch my husband sleep blissfully as I put on my workout gear. I want Chris to be my workout partner, but I don't think he is mentally ready for it. When we did have a membership, he rarely went during lunch. In fairness, although the gym was close to his job, walking distance even, it would take him 15 to minutes to get there vs my 5 minute walk. Driving wasn't an option, because by the time he got out of the garage and parked, he wasted 20 minutes. He did make it sometimes, but he never went to the HIIT class I begged him to go to with me. He went once, walked out of the class after 15 minutes and never tried it again. Yes the class was intense, but it was doable. I think he got intimidated. He blamed it on his head cold. We were doing the Saturday thing for awhile, but working out once a week is not going to cut it. Every once in awhile he joined me for a Nike training routine, but we couldn't get it in most evenings. It just isn't feasible. Between picking up Deuce, spending time with him, cooking, and preparing for the next day, our evening is over before it even starts. In the summer and spring I could take Deuce to the park after school and push him in my jogging stroller, Chris usually didn't join me. But going to the park in the evening is not an option right now, because it gets dark so early. So what am I going to do? Chris has his weekly bowling league; I need something for myself. Perhaps my sister would be interested in meeting up once a week to exercise at each other's homes. I also need to learn how to motivate myself without the support of others.
If you guys have any ideas, be it healthy meal suggestions, how to fit exercise in a busy schedule, or meetups please feel free to comment.
E
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